MPG dropped from 40's to the low 30' overnight

[brokenbob]

I have 7,000 miles on my Fusion, been driving it for a year. My wife and I have been competing to see who gets the best gas mileage each time we drive it. It has been normal to see the high 40's and mid 50's on drive of 5 or 6 miles. We are also accustom to see the battery level recede to about 1/4 when the engine kicks in. Normally it will charge to about 3/4 full and the battery will then take over.

 

On a particularly cold morning, I noticed the battery being full charged and the engine continued to run continuing to charge the battery. We use the "Engage" monitor on the dash. After driving about 5 miles the battery was still in full charge but not discharging. This also occurred with my wife when she drove it the next day. Our MPG was staying in the low 30's to high 20's. At times the battery would discharge and recycle but it was different from our past 11 months experience.

 

I took it to the Dealer-They informed me there was a recall and performed Field Service Action 14B03.

 

Drove for a week and while it was a little better, the problem was still there and our gas mileage is staying in the low 30's.

Not only that we were not able to get the EV+ to work. It was more intermittent but you could guarantee that it would occur several times a day.

 

Returned it to the Dealer-They could not reproduce the problem, said I probably had a lead foot and that 35-36 mpg is what would be expected during this time of the year. Mechanic also stated he had not ridden with me. They did get my EV+ working but I am still getting low 30's mpg.

 

I had this car during last years winter and it was a lot colder that this year, yet I did not experience the drop in MPG.

 

Wondering if anyone else has had this problem?

[hybridbear]

Any reprogramming of the PCM clears the learned parameters & your EV+ locations. Give the car about 1000 miles to relearn your driving habits and you should see MPGs improve. Also, your description of an occurrence where the car would not go into EV mode sounds like the HVB may have been going through a cell balancing/reconditioning event.

 

I'm also moving this topic to the appropriate section.

[jeff_h]

And I assume they did the 14E02 PCM recall -- I think the 14B03 was the customer service action to send out the goodwill checks.

 

The EV+ locations will come back soon, but hopefully it doesn't take 1,000 miles for the system to re-learn things...

[brokenbob]

Thanks for the responses. After looking at your all's MPG I am more certain than ever that I still have some type of problem. Prior to the aforementioned problem I too was getting MPG comparable to you. It's very discouraging to see 26 MPG when I know that it should be in the mid 40's. Oh well, guess I just keep bugging the Dealer.

[billford]

Did the EV+ stop on its own?

 

Maybe try and reset your trip display and test drive it for at least 25 miles on flat roads and see what the mpg's are after. Verify the tire pressures are correct. Don't use the heater when the engine is cold. Try using the cruise control. I'm thinking that there may be too many short trips in the cold weather.

 

I'm interested to see the results.

Edited January 31, 2015 by billford

[brokenbob]

The EV+ seems to be working ok. It stopped working after the 140B3 (this is what my dealer said was a PCM recall, I do not know about the 14E02). The Service Order from my last visit indicated the Mechanic did something to make the EV+ work. No, he did not just turn it on at the dash-I had checked that prior to taking it in. I do and have done all of the things that all of you have suggested. I am wondering now if the engine has to be good and warm before it will allow the motor to kick in? Yesterday, I remote started for about 10 minutes-everything seemed to work as expected except a couple of times I saw the battery completely full and still charging. I am use to having the car go on battery while at stop lights and this doesn't always happen even though the batter is 3/4 charged.

 

Thanks for all the feedback

[lolder]

It sounds like the ICE is running to keep the cabin warm. Is there a difference on how the car was stored last winter or in the way you're using the HVAC?

Edited January 31, 2015 by lolder

[brokenbob]

I am doing nothing different than last year. The temperatures are not that cold when this occurs. 20 to 40 degree range. The car is kept in the garage.

It behave quite normal yesterday with several 5-6 mile trips indicating 48-49 MPG. Can't complain about that! Temps were in the upper 40's yesterday

[groovnick]

Did you ever solve this problem? You've described my problem exactly

[Griswald]

Its cold...that's all that s wrong. Some cars are more cold-tolerant than others.

 

I got 31 MPG this morning on my commute, my normal is 44. No big deal, it will warm up again.

[Cobra348]

Did you ever solve this problem? You've described my problem exactly

 

Its cold...that's all that s wrong. Some cars are more cold-tolerant than others.

 

I got 31 MPG this morning on my commute, my normal is 44. No big deal, it will warm up again.

Soon as I put snow tires on and temps dropped. my MPG per tank (receipt calcs) has dropped to low-mid 30s from 42+. ICE runs a lot and it is not always a good thing. Being the first Winter for the FFH, I'm learning to juggle using CC versus seat and wheel heat to get things like I want them. I still need to do some grill blocking though.

[bdginmo]

As others have mentioned short trips on cold days are mpg killers. Do this. Drive around and get the vehicle fully warmed up (both the ICE and cabin). You may have to drive 10 or more miles for this to happen. Then reset one of your trip counters and watch the mpg. I actually did this on my way to work this morning. For my 30 mile commute the first 10 miles came in at about 32 mpg. The last 20 miles was closer to 48 mpg. Huge difference!

Edited January 5, 2016 by bdginmo

[Barsoom]

This may sound weird, but I think my 2013 FFH likes the cold. I keep my car in a garage overnight, so it isn't terribly cold in the morning. I put the A/C on in the Auto mode at 70 degrees when I begin my morning drive at 6:15am. Since I usually end the drive home with a low state of charge, the car needs to run the ICE anyway, so it warms the heater and recharges the HVB. When the HVB gets over 80%, if the engine hasn't warmed up yet, the instant MPG jumps from 20 to 40, indicating that the power from the ICE is no longer going towards recharging the HVB. As soon as I make my first stop, the ICE turns off and I have a nice flat 2.5 mile drive with only one stop sign, all done on EV.